A Tale of Two Pizzas...

Last week, Chicago played NYC and it was a close game.  Nope, it wasn’t Da Bears… (come on, pre-season just started,) it was Da Pizza.  A battle I’ve always wanted to ref myself… and I finally got my chance.

I was in Chicago for a conference and then flying out to the Big Apple the next day for a few days off and so I decided to pit a classic Chicago deep dish in a back to back double-header against a New York slice the very next day to see who came out on top.

Let the games begin.

ROUND ONE:

For my deep dish extravaganza, I went to the best… Giordano’s on Jackson.  It was a perfect choice.  Just past lunch hour, this legendary hot spot was still bustling.  Delectable, tomato-y smells were wafting out of the kitchen- so I settled into a booth, ordered a cold one and a ‘classic for one’ and waited… and waited… and waited.

35 minutes to be exact- just as predicted by my server, Lorita. 

This is part of their strategy, I’m sure of it.  The anticipation is part of the game plan.  You sit, comfortable, waiting… ready.  You sip your beer and think about what it’ll be like, your imagination takes over and you start to day dream… you look around and see all the other people enjoying it… you start to want it so bad, you can practically taste it…

… And then it arrives.  Oh. Yeah.

Hot, deep, gooey, deliciousness.  Steam rising. Cheese oozing across the plate.  The moment of truth-  Chicago Deep Dish, in all of it’s backwards, inside out, pizza glory (but don’t say that it’s "backwards" out loud to the Chicagoans, it’ll ruin the mood, trust me.)

Forget the game, I was falling in love.

It’s more of a casserole than a pie, really, but the crust is insane.  Artful pastry, thick and flaky.  Then comes the cheese…So. Much. Cheese. Yum.  Then the toppings smothered in this amazing tomato sauce- tangy, full of herbs and spices- and of course, more cheese. 

It’s a beautiful thing.  And as a deep dish virgin, I have to say that my first time was definitely all it was cracked up to be.  I was not disappointed, and left satisfied, with the remnants of my affair wrapped neatly in a little package for later.

Touchdown.  Score one for Chicago.

Post-Game

The morning after… I decided to revisit my romance from the day before.  With hours of delays out of O’Hare, there came a point when my doggie bag came in handy.  Sadly, as hot and deep as it had been, deep dish doesn’t hold over as well as the pizza I’m used to. 

The cheesy-cheesiness that was once gooey and hot wasn’t quite so luscious in its cold, hardened state.  Hmmmm, I guess deep dish is more of a one-time-thing kind of pizza, not so much for the long term.

Stay tuned for Round two:  New York Slice.